Possible January Trade Talks Between China And US: US’s Mnuchin

12/20/2018

According to United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, meetings between trade representatives of the US and China would probably hold their first official meeting since the 90 day trade truce in January for development of a larger truce in the trade was but it was not likely that they would be holding face-to-face meetings before such time.

In recent weeks, telephonic conversations have been held by the two sides several times and the process of finalizing formal discussions was still ongoing, said Mnuchin while speaking in a roundtable interview Tuesday at Bloomberg’s Washington office.

“We’re in the process of confirming the logistics of several meetings and we’re determined to make sure that we use the time wisely, to try to resolve this,” Mnuchin said. he said that both the countries are now concentrating on trying “to document an agreement” by a March 1 deadline when the current 90 day trade truce would end. “We expect there will be meetings in January,” he said. Previously the administration hadn’t been specific on the timing of talks.

According to Chinese officials with knowledge of the discussions, the two sides are planning to meet in January. There were no comments from China’s Ministry of Commerce.

When asked about the arrest of the CFO of Huawei Technologies in Canada at a time when IS President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were meeting for Dinner on December 1 in Buenos Aries, Mnuchin said neither he nor Trump knew anything about the arrest. The Huawei executive was arrested on the same day.

Last week Trump had commented that in order to help reach a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies, he could also step in to intervene on behalf of Huawei if the situation demanded. That declaration was sought to be played down by the Treasury secretary.

“We’ve been very clear and China understands that these are separate tracks,’’ Mnuchin said.

Munchin said that there had been no “direct conversation” between him and the president the Huawei case. He also did not say anything on reports about the Treasury Department getting ready to file a broader case against the Chinese tech company. Huawei has been accused of trying to violate the US sanctions on Iran.

According to Mnuchin, if there is any eventual deal between the US and China on trade,. Biht the sides have agreed to make it “enforceable and verifiable and have specific dates on it.”

“We are determined that if we have an agreement it will be specific enough that time frames and details and everything else will be laid out,’’ he said.

With respect to the reduction of the trade deficit that the US has with China, Munchin said that the administration wants more time and that it was also focused on making China make structural changes in the Chinese economy so that there can be a balance of trade.

“I don’t think that we’d expect that overnight,’’ Mnuchin said of the prospect of eliminating the trade deficit with China.